Rather than type the letter out, I scanned it and you can click on the image below to read it. My response follows.

letter

Click this image to read

My response

Dear Laura,

Thank you for the box of cookies. It is most appreciated. I also appreciate your letter informing me of the thought that goes into your business and the importance of customer feedback. Your letter made lots of good points up until the last paragraph.

The line, “it would have been nice of you to come to me directly, instead of posting your unhappiness to the world.” Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with this blog, but that is kind of what I do around here, I sometimes post my unhappiness to the world. It’s cathartic and people relate.

Typically, when I have an issue with a company, I don’t complain. There was a time that I did, but usually complaints rarely seem to matter. Most people who are unsatisfied with a company don’t complain to the company directly, they simply tell their friends. It’s that whole word-of-mouth thing which you mentioned. I forget the statistic, but I used to hear it all the time at company meetings, but basically, most people who are happy with a business might tell two other people. Those who are unsatisfied will tell something in the neighborhood of 12 million people. (Okay, so maybe I wasn’t paying attention to the meetings, but you get the point.)

In most businesses, you get one shot at impressing a customer. If you fail to do so, most customers move on. They don’t take the time to track you down and tell you how you can do your business better. There is a school of thought in business which says to always over deliver on expectations and you will have a long term relationship with most customers. Sending one cookie, in my opinion anyway, leaves a bad taste in a customer’s mouth. It would be one thing if I sampled the cookie at a shop. However, this was something which I paid for, even if I only paid for shipping. There is a presumed value in my purchase which makes me feel I ought to get my money’s worth.

For $2.50, that had better be one GIANT cookie.

Most of your costs for the sample seem to be in the shipping and packaging of the cookies. I don’t know what the cookies cost to make but I would guess there can’t be too much of a difference between one and say, three cookies. I could be completely wrong on this and feel free to correct me if so. However, even if it is at a small loss, I think sending three cookies would send a better message and would be a true free sample. And it would likely whet the appetite for even more cookies.

Spreading my unhappiness one blog post at a time

Back to your closing paragraph. While I do enjoy taking shots at big, faceless corporations who can’t seem to ever have more than two lanes in a store open at a time(!), I do not single out individual people and small businesses that fail to live up to my expectations, which is why I didn’t mention your company by name.

While your company, the Vermont Chocolate Chip Cookie Company may use the term “World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie” in its copy, it doesn’t show up in the first several pages of any of the Google searches I did for the term, so I figured the odds of readers putting a name to the company were pretty close to nil.

The post was merely feedback for not just yours, but any business who might have a similar situation. It has good advice for those who care to listen to the message. I say that we can sometimes learn more from those who are disappointed with our product than those who are satisfied.

I applaud you for taking the time to address my issues. It is a rare thing in today’s world for a company or individuals, for that matter, to do.

You mentioned a note in samples you sent out asking for feedback. I had no such note in my sample. And believe me, I looked, because I was sure there had to be something more in the first envelope you sent! But since you are looking for feedback, here is my feedback.

and now the part we’ve been waiting for… a review of the cookie.

• Packaging: I like the bubble envelope and the rubber band and ribbon and plastic wrap. I have no complaints. I’m not sure what a better alternative would be for making sure the cookies don’t crumble outside of a box or a tube of some sort. The presentation was good and the card attached to the package was of premium quality.
• Size: The three inch diameter seemed small when I was getting just one cookie. When I have several, the size is less of an issue.
• Taste: The first thing I tasted was the semi-sweet chocolate which was warm and melted in my mouth (perhaps because they’d been in my warm mailbox – but a GOOD melt in your mouth experience nonetheless). Next, I tasted a slight hint of butter, which I like in a cookie. I thought there was a bit of alcohol in the cookie. For a brief moment, I worried that I’d been sent a laced cookie because of my snarky letter. However, my wife corrected me and told me it was the taste of vanilla. Either way, very good. A bit on the sweet side, though most people prefer cookies like that. I tend to prefer slightly less sweet and less chocolaty, which I am sure is in direct opposition to many of my female readers who LOVE chocolate so much the only way you could make it better would be to cover the chocolate in yet another layer of chocolate. Chocolate covered chocolate. Somewhere, Tara Cain’s ears are twitching.
• Texture: Texture in a cookie is very subjective. I love crunchy cookies whereas my wife likes cookies that are so soft they practically drip off the plate. These cookies were soft with just the right amount of crunch, somehow satisfying both my wife and my own preferences.
• Overall: Is it truly The World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie? Well, I don’t know if I can say that because my wife makes perhaps the best ones I’ve tasted, which are super crunchy (which she makes just for me). However, they ARE great cookies and I would recommend them to anyone who wants to find out for themselves if this is truly the World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Thank you for the explanation and the cookies,

Blogger Dad

Wow, that was more than 1,200 words. I apologize for those who could care less about cookies or my grumbling. To those that do care, feel free to comment below or order some of the World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies for yourself and see what all the fuss has been about.

As always, thank you for reading,

David

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